Chapter 16: Plan Blows Up

"What the hell!" I exclaimed when I heard boards hitting the ground outside our back door.

"That's Charles," Laura said. She was sitting across the breakfast table, having gotten up to see me off to school. "I called them yesterday after we talked. He wanted to get started."

"We haven't settled on a price for the work," I complained.

Laura waved her hand, squelching my alarm. "We'll work it out. If we don't think his price if fair we'll... We will... You can speak to him," she laughed and I couldn't help laughing with her.

On the way to the back door she caught me. I stopped to run my hands across her cheek and down her hair. "You're a softy," I said, giving her a wet kiss on the neck.

Charles was sizing up the lumber stock. We shook hands and went over the plans for both additions, deciding when special items such as the windows would need to be ordered. I could see how eager he was to show what he could do. I told him that I would call the lumber yard and hardware store to let them know that Charles would be charging supplies to our accounts.

"What's your last name Charles?"

"Graves," he said.

"I'll tell them if Charles Graves shows up they should roll out the red carpet," I said, leaving him in good spirits.

Having my breakfast interrupted, I was starving by lunchtime. Huley watched me eat, curious and confounded at the same time. "Do you want some of mine?" She asked, offering her plate.

"We'll talk tonight," she said when I wanted to resume our conversation about Jake Trainer. "I'll close my door and we can have a private conversation."

"Did your dad give you any more shit about changing your clothes in front of me?"

"I told you I don't want to talk about yesterday here. We'll talk tonight," she snapped, later apologizing for her outburst as we parted.

I noticed that she no longer touched me or clung to me as she had before our Friday night motel-room date. It made me wonder if she was losing interest or if it had something to do with Jake Trainer.

"Call me, I'll be waiting," she said.

"Are you sure this is the color they wanted?" Jimmy asked as soon as I found him and Davey on the back side of the house. I was there to let them know that I would be working with Charles but when I saw how the new light green was covering the old glossy yellow paint I decided to change my plans. The yellow was showing through.

"I never should have let them pick that color," I lamented.

We talked about the possibility that the paint store had mixed the paint wrong or if the second coat would hide the old paint. The owners of the house were not at home.

"Let's pack it up and go meet Charles," I suggested. "I'll come back tonight when they're here."

We didn't get much done in the two hours we worked with Charles. Mainly, we talked about what Jimmy and Davie could do on Thursday and Friday to help Charles, assuming they finished the house with the paint color problem.

"Where have you been?" Huley wanted to know when I was five minutes late placing the telephone call to her. It took me five more minutes to explain that I had interviewed an applicant, neglecting to say that Lacy had insisted that I see her boyfriend, Eric. Afterward, I had been to a customer's home to resolve a paint problem.

"Ugh," was her reaction to my description of the paint combination. She didn't seem to care that it had taken me hours to resolve the problem and that I had not had a minute to study.

We compared notes on what we had missed by not attending the football game. Jake Trainer, a two way player, tight end on offense and middle line backer on defense, had stopped the opposing fullback from scoring on a short running play with seconds left in the first half. By stopping the rush Jake had kept the score tied but in so doing he had suffered a broken collar bone and there was possible damage to his lower back. His season was finished and there was talk that he would not be able to play again.

"You're going to have to tell me," I said, trying to move the conversation along. While I felt obliged to listen there was something nagging at me. Besides, I needed to prepare for the next day's classes.

"I told you," she answered placidly.

"No, you told me that you and Jake had a summer fling or whatever you want to call it. You didn't say what has happened since and you haven't told me why your sister and your parents were sympathetic and secretive yesterday," I said more bluntly than was necessary.

"Nothing has happened."

"Then why did Petri and your parents react the way they did yesterday?"

"I don't know. Maybe they think I'm still in love with him. I don't know."

"Are you?"

"I don't think so. No, I'm not."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Randy I'm sure. Please believe me."

"But you were? Is that right? You loved him?"

"I told you. That was two summers ago. I thought it was love but I don't know any more."

"Your parents must think it was love. They were very concerned for you. Even Petri was concerned."

"He's been calling. He's been trying to see me," she said, her voice low and hesitant.

"Oh, I see," I said. And I did see. Thoughts were rushing into my head. She had wanted to be seen with me so guys would not hit on her. Was it one guy, Jake Trainer? Was this the reason she had not fawned all over me in the cafeteria? Had she been using me?

"Randy?"

"Yes?"

"They knew. My parents knew that I was sleeping with him. That's why they let me go away to school. They thought if I went away I would forget about him and I guess it worked."

"You guess?"

"It must have worked. I didn't take any of his calls and I stayed away from him at school."

"Did he try to talk to you at school?"

"Yes, a couple of times until he saw us together then he stopped."

"It sounds like you have been using me as a shield," I said without emotion. It didn't matter. She had used me and I had let her for my own purposes. The difference between us was that I knew her reasons, she did not know mine.

"No, it's not that way. At first it was, I'll admit that but now that we're together it's different."

I couldn't let her off that easily. "You hardly touched me today. Was that because Jake Trainer was not around to impress?"

"No! No, don't say that. I didn't touch you because that's what couples do. They don't touch because they are a couple. I didn't touch you because we're a couple. It shows we are secure with one another. Don't you see?"

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," I said, incredulous. But the way she had spoken, candidly and confidently as if she believed and understood what she was saying made me give her some slack.

"Are you laughing at me?"

"You weren't kidding?"

"No, can't you feel it? On Sunday I wanted the others to see that we were together but at school it doesn't matter, everyone knows. Everyone knows we're sleeping together."

"Is that why you did it before? So everyone would know?"

"Partly, don't you like it?"

"I missed it today when you didn't do it."

"Just wait. Tomorrow I'll be all over you like... like..."

"There's something I've been meaning to ask you. Did you like Friday night?"

"Are you kidding? You weren't listening were you? Didn't I say I liked it?"

"Maybe, I don't recall," I teased her.

"Do you want to know what I'm doing right now?"

"No, don't tell me. It would distract me. I've got to study," I pleaded as we said goodbye.

Laura had been asleep for two hours when I got to bed that night. "Only 6 more days," she mumbled as she threw an arm over me.

I was in the bathroom the next morning, shaving when Laura slipped through the door, carrying my school clothes.

"Put these on, please," she said, playfully slapping my ass.

"Why?" I asked, turning to see that she was dressed.

"We have company," she whispered. "Nadine and the kids are here."

After a quick bowl of cereal I left the house by the back door to talk with Charles about Eric, Lacy's boyfriend who I had spoken to the night before. Besides the little girl, Ruthie, investigating every room, there was a playpen in the living room and a high chair in the kitchen.

Laura was holding the baby and Nadine looked frazzled.

Charles agreed to give Eric a try as a carpenter's helper. We also discussed the schedule, Charles saying that both projects would be ready for the electrician and plumber to start their work by the following Monday.

While driving to school I went over the various schedules that I had to keep track of. They were like school bells ringing in my mind. There were painting customers to keep in contact with and now construction sub-contractors to call and special items to be ordered. There were school assignments, tests and final exams plus dates with Huley. But the most important thing on my mind that morning was Laura's birthday. After taking three weeks off would she be home at the end of the month to celebrate her thirty-first birthday?

"Don't do that," I said to Huley. We were in line in the cafeteria deciding what to have for lunch. "You're getting me hard, it's embarrassing."

"Make me," she countered, forcing me to turn my back to her to escape being tormented by her breasts rubbing against my chest. I felt her grind them into my back.

"I'll stop if you kiss me right here," she said.

I turned back, thinking she wanted me to kiss her right there in the line but she had moved the jacket she was wearing aside to give me a view of shoulder straps, exposing her bare shoulder. She gave me an impish grin.

The jacket was green to match the dress with the shoulder straps she wore underneath but the lining was blue.

"What would you like?" The server behind the counter said, sounding impatient.

Huley didn't budge. She held the jacket open for me, watching mischievously.

Defeated, I leaned down and kissed her shoulder, briefly, then told the server that I would take the chicken. Huley eyed me skeptically, still baring her shoulder.

"That wasn't a kiss," she accused.

"What would you like? We're holding the line up," I whispered.

"Do you call that a kiss?"

The server handed me my plate and looked to Huley but when she didn't turn to order the server asked the person behind me what he wanted.

"Order something," I hissed.

Huley stood her ground, a serious look on her face but there was a glint in her eyes. We were creating a scene. The person behind me had to reach over the glass for his plate and there was no one in line between us and the cashier who was leaning out to watch us.

"I'm going to have a salad," she said.

"Okay, pick up a salad and let's move on."

"Not 'till you give me a proper kiss."

"Damn it Huley, everyone's watching, move it," I said, letting my voice carry.

Huley was grinning, clearly amused that she had gotten me upset. I considered stepping around her but sidestepping her challenge would not have been playing fair. I considered picking her up and carrying her to the cash register but that would have caused more of a scene because I knew that she would not be carried without kicking and screaming. Seconds were ticking into minutes or so it seemed.

Deciding there was no way to avoid kissing her shoulder in public, I collected all the moister in my mouth and deposited it on her shoulder, making her shriek, not because she minded the spit but because I had yielded to her request.

Cheers rose from the audience we had collected. Huley wrapped her arms around my neck and planted random kisses about my face. Her feet were off the floor and my hand was on her ass, holding her to me so I could walk us toward the cash register.

Even when the cafeteria manager came out to warn us that she was going to call security Huley would not release her hold on me.

"I told you I was going to be all over you today," she bragged when I finally got her seated across from me. Even then, she attracted more attention. She had removed the jacket and placed it on the back of her chair. Her shoulder was still wet. Because I had rushed her through the line she had to return to the service area several times for salad dressing, then a fork and again for a napkin, wiggling her butt and turning to make sure I was watching. The skirt was short enough to make her legs seem extraordinarily long.

Each time she took her seat across from me she extended her legs to make contact with mine.

There was not much I could do except promise to get even. "Wait till I get you naked. You're going to pay for this," I said grinning at the way she was blinking her eyelashes at me.

"When's that going to be?" She asked. For the first time that day she was being serious.

"I don't know," I had to admit. "How about Friday night? The team is away this week so we can't say we're going to the game."

"How about tomorrow afternoon?" She was smiling that evil way. "You have Wednesday afternoon off. I'll skip class and we'll go to my house for lunch."

It made no sense to me. I made it a habit of spending Wednesday afternoons in the school library. It was either that or paint with the guys. My plan for the next day was to see how Eric was making out on his first day working with Charles.

Huley's shy smile told me I had missed something.